The healthcare sector in India is increasingly becoming focused on innovation and technology. India is a frontrunner when it comes to healthcare management. More than 80 per cent of healthcare systems are aiming to increase their investment in digital healthcare tools and upgrade their infrastructure in the coming five years.
Contrary to common understanding, healthcare industry is much more than just hospitals and healthcare centres. It also comprises telemedicine, medical devices, clinical trials, outsourcing, medical tourism, health insurance and medical equipment.
In India, the healthcare delivery system is both public and private. The former i.e. the public health care system is where the government through its entities and agencies offers infrastructure and services. This includes the primary and basic healthcare facilities, also known as, Primary Healthcare Centres (PHCs) in rural areas. The secondary and tertiary healthcare institutions in towns and cities also are part of the public healthcare system in India although they are limited in number.
The private sector, on the other hand, are primarily owning and running the secondary, tertiary, and quaternary care institutions in the country with a major concentration in metros, tier-I and tier-II cities.
Changing scenario post Covid
The Covid-19 pandemic was a critical event for many industries including the healthcare sector. The government efforts were supported by private initiatives during the time. In FY 2020-21, healthcare was only behind the education sector vis-a-vis CSR donations, with about 26 per cent of India’s CSR going to health and nutrition.
Today, healthcare has become one of the largest sectors of the Indian economy, in terms of both revenue and employment. It has been growing at a CAGR of 22 per cent since 2016, employing 4.7 million people directly. The sector has the potential to generate 2.7 million additional jobs in India between 2017-22 that amounts to over 5,00,000 new jobs per year.
The growth of the Indian healthcare sector is being driven by several factors that include a growing middle class, an increase in the proportion of lifestyle diseases, growing population, aging demographics, increased emphasis on public-private partnerships and most importantly an exponential rise in the adoption of digital technologies that includes telemedicine. This has also increased the interest of investors, FDI inflows and lately CSR donors.
During the pandemic, several organisations diverted their funds towards healthcare initiatives as part of their CSR activities. In Gujarat, for example, the healthcare sector received 55 per cent of all the CSR funding of the financial year 2020-21.
From assisting government departments during the pandemic to the post-pandemic recovery phase, corporate funding in the form of CSR went a long way. Interestingly, in the recovery phase, CSR activities have been focussing on creating long-term impact and the healthcare CSR trends in India have changed for the better.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd (ONGC) along with ONGC Foundation and PM CARES Fund initiated several activities as part of the COVID-19 relief activities. Apart from contributing to the PM CARES Fund, the group provided financial assistance towards cold chain logistic support for the Covid-19 vaccination programme.
Developing healthcare infrastructure
A CSR project by Reliance Industries Ltd. for Healthcare Infrastructure Development with implementing partner Reliance Foundation contributed towards preventive and public healthcare initiatives.
As part of this project, the company strives to address the preventive primary healthcare needs of the serving population (underprivileged rural and urban population) through four static medical units in Mumbai and six mobile medical units at select locations in Mumbai, Uttarakhand and Madhya Pradesh.
Six fully-equipped Mobile Medical Units (MMUs) with state-of-the-art technology including cloud-based software to store patient information are now serving these areas. The MMUs provide necessary care free of cost at the doorstep through periodic visits. In the last year, 75,510 patient consultations have happened across Mumbai, Uttarakhand and Madhya Pradesh.
The Static Medical Units (SMUs) across Mumbai provide diagnostic facilities along with consultation with a focus on chronic lifestyle diseases like hypertension and diabetes. In addition to this, trained doctors and medical personnel attend to the primary medical care needs of patients.
Reliance Foundation’s Drishti programme is aimed to assist the visually-impaired from the underprivileged segments of society. Over 14,000 corneal transplants have been done of which 1,200 were done in 2020-21.
In another Healthcare Infrastructure Development project initiated by Infosys along with implementing partners Infosys Foundation, the company contributed to CSR towards the following projects: Construction of the 800-bed Infosys Vishram Sadan at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS); Construction of a 300-bed hospital block at the Sri Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences & Research; Construction of the 600-bed Infosys Asha Nivas dharmashala at the Tata Memorial Center; and, construction of a 100-bed maternal and child care hospital.
Providing quality medical education
In a CSR project initiated by Zydus Lifesciences Ltd. – formerly known as Cadila Healthcare Limited, an Indian multinational pharmaceutical company headquartered in Ahmedabad and primarily engaged in the manufacture of generic drugs – a hospital building was constructed in rural Gujarat.
Along with Zydus Foundation, the project aimed to serve and cater to the needs of the patients and provide the best medical education in the rural interiors of Gujarat. The foundation set up the Zydus Medical College and Hospital at Dahod.
The new hospital building comprises five modular Operation Theatres. Also, a Thalassemia Centre at ZMCH has been set up and the number of beds for Sickle Cell and Haemophilia has been increased. During the Covid-19 pandemic, the Zydus Hospital in Dahod increased the number of beds at the quarantine facility to 306, from 100 beds in 2020, of which 100 were ICU beds and 206 were oxygen beds.
Reducing the financial burden
In a healthcare initiative by Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited called ‘Project Dil Without Bill’, the group provides support for heart surgeries, at no cost, for low-income group people with heart ailments especially the children.
As part of the project, the group has organised health camps to raise awareness and identify patients with heart ailments and, in the process, has helped thousands of families over the years. In FY 2019-20, 600 successful heart surgeries were carried out.
Another initiative by the same group, Project Suraksha focuses on the prevention of HIV/AIDS among truckers and surrounding communities. It entails spreading awareness and educating the members about safe-sex practices and providing diagnosis and treatment of Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) through their clinics on highways known as Khushi clinics.
The Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd. (ONGC), on the other hand, supported the setting up of National Cancer Institute in Nagpur – a 455 bedded quaternary care oncology centre – to provide world-class oncology treatment facility at affordable rates to the general public of the region.
The state-of-the-art radio diagnostic equipment and construction of the first floor and ground floor of the institute was funded by ONGC.
Due to the prevalence of oral cancer cases in Nagpur, the corporation decided to support this collaborative project to set up the cancer institute at Nagpur.